Crowd
Half a million people who mostly did not have tickets. The traffic that closed the New York State Thruway, the fences coming down, the mud and the rain, the food shortage and the airlifts, the free kitchen and the Hog Farm, the medical tent, and the two people who died.
Part of Woodstock
57 moments in this segment.
- - Backstage at Woodstock. Photograph described on Commons as taken backstage at the 1969 Woodstock festival. The Commons file page carries no author or date field, so the attribution is thinner than for the rest of this set.
- - Two in the crowd, faces obscured. A privacy-edited derivative of the same 1969 festival photograph, with the subjects' faces covered. The underlying image is a genuine 1969 festival photograph.
- - Two in the crowd. Two festivalgoers photographed among the audience. A genuine photograph of the 1969 festival.
- - Waiting out the rain. The audience waiting for one of the festival's downpours to pass. A genuine photograph of the 1969 festival.
- - The natural amphitheatre. The crowd filling the sloping field with the stage at the bottom. A genuine photograph of the 1969 festival.
- - Tents and Volkswagens in the camping area. The campground beside the field, with the Volkswagens that were ubiquitous there. A genuine photograph of the 1969 festival.
- - Rain at Woodstock. Footage of the downpours that turned the field to mud and stopped the music twice.
- - The Crowd's Rain Chant. The half-million-strong 'no rain' chant, from Michael Wadleigh's 1970 Woodstock documentary.
- - A Reporter Struggles to Get a Live Shot. ABC's Gregory Jackson trying, and failing, to file a live report from the middle of the crowd.
- - Woodstock, 15 August 1969. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH taken on the opening day by Milwaukee photojournalist Mark Goff, who released his Woodstock negatives into the public domain.
- - Sweetwater - Woodstock Set, with Swami Satchidananda's Opening Address. Sweetwater were scheduled to open the festival but were stuck in traffic; this recording includes Swami Satchidananda's invocation that preceded them.
- - Faces in the Friday crowd. A crop of the opening-day crowd photograph. A genuine photograph of the 1969 festival.
- - Swami Satchidananda opens the festival. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH by Mark Goff of Swami Satchidananda delivering the opening invocation at Woodstock on 15 August 1969.
- - The crowd on the first day. Part of the audience on the Friday, the festival's opening day. A genuine photograph of the 1969 festival.
- - Sleeping bags on the field. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH. Most of the half-million who came to Bethel slept where they sat.
- - Bethel residents selling hot dogs and soda. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH. With the festival's own food concessions overwhelmed, local Sullivan County residents sold what they had.
- - Standing ovation, with the hospital tent behind. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH. The medical tent visible in the frame treated thousands over the weekend.
- - Finding a spot on the field. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH of a festival-goer picking his way through the seated crowd.
- - Hats off, shirts on. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH of festival-goers on the Woodstock field.
- - Towers and the artists' tent. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH showing the scaffold towers and the performers' tent beside the stage.
- - Applause across the field. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH of the Woodstock audience applauding between sets.
- - A pipe offered and refused. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH taken among the audience at Woodstock.
- - Route 17B jammed with traffic. A GENUINE 1969 PHOTOGRAPH of Route 17B choked with cars heading for Bethel; the traffic jam ran for miles and stranded performers and audience alike.
- - Sunny Saturday afternoon on the field. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH. The audience spread across Max Yasgur's sloping field on the Saturday of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair.
- - A parasol against the sun. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH of the audience improvising shade during the Saturday afternoon of the festival.
- - On the field at Bethel. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH from the Woodstock audience; the photographer noted no particular subject.
- - A balloon over the campground. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH looking across the Woodstock field toward the camping area.
- - Looking back up the field. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH, shot from the crowd looking away from the stage toward the top of the natural amphitheatre.
- - Evening falls on Saturday. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH taken as darkness came down over the field on the second day.
- - Dancing on Saturday night. An audience member dancing during the Saturday-night sets. A genuine photograph of the 1969 festival.
- - A car seat in the field. A crop of a festivalgoer who carried a car seat onto the field to sit on. A genuine photograph of the 1969 festival.
- - Sunday morning on the field. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH of the audience waking on the third morning of the festival.
- - After Jefferson Airplane's dawn set. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH taken on the Sunday morning, after Jefferson Airplane closed the Saturday-night programme at dawn.
- - The Woodstock Music and Art Fair. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH of the crowd at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair on the Sunday.
- - Newspaper coverage, 17 August 1969. A page from the Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin of 17 August 1969, carrying wire photographs of the festival while it was still under way.
- - A car seat carried onto the field. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH of festival-goers who brought a car seat to sit on.
- - Blanket tent, waiting for the music. A GENUINE 1969 FESTIVAL PHOTOGRAPH of festival-goers sheltering under an improvised blanket tent on the Sunday.
- - Leaving Woodstock - NBC News, 18 August 1969. NBC's footage of the crowd streaming away from the site after Hendrix closed the festival.
- - Leaving the Festival - Home Movie, Monticello. Amateur film by Barbara Bedick of attendees walking out along Mongaup Road near Sackett Lake as local summer residents look on.
- - NBC News Report on Woodstock, 18 August 1969. NBC's network report from the site as the festival ended.
- - NBC News: The End of Woodstock. Correspondent Lem Tucker reports from upstate New York as the festival comes to an end.
- - ABC News Coverage of Woodstock, 18 August 1969. ABC's report on the festival as it broke up, filed the same day.
- - CBS News Coverage of Woodstock, 18 August 1969. The CBS Evening News report filed as the festival ended, complete with the original commercials.
- - Young people near the festival grounds. A GENUINE 1969 PHOTOGRAPH taken near the Woodstock festival grounds on the final day, 18 August 1969, by Louisville journalist Ric Manning.
- - Wavy Gravy and Jahanara Romney. Wavy Gravy, who led the Hog Farm commune that ran Woodstock's free kitchen and 'Please Force' security in 1969, with Jahanara Romney, photographed in July 2013. A modern photograph.
- - Integral Yoga on the opening invocation. The Integral Yoga institute's own account of how their founder came to give the opening invocation, asking the crowd to use music for peace.
- - Wavy Gravy and the Please Force. PBS clip on Hugh Romney (Wavy Gravy) and the Hog Farm, brought in to handle crowd care and bad trips at the festival.
- - The road to Woodstock closes. PBS clip on the traffic that seized up for miles before the festival grounds as crowds far exceeded the organisers' projections.
- - Handing security to a hippie commune. PBS clip on the decision to have the Hog Farm commune run Woodstock's security rather than police.
- - The Couple on the Woodstock Album Cover. Bobbi and Nick Ercoline, photographed wrapped in a blanket in 1969, still together fifty years later.
- - Remembering Woodstock in Buffalo. A local station's fiftieth anniversary piece built around a painted Volkswagen van, the era's emblematic vehicle.
- - The Road to Woodstock and Beyond, with the Woodstock Guru. A longer account from Integral Yoga of Satchidananda's arrival by helicopter and his address to the crowd.
- - An attendee's memories after fifty years. Linda Goldman, who travelled from Toronto to Bethel aged 18 in 1969, shows her mementos and recalls the weekend.
- - Firsthand Stories: Jeannie Whitworth and Van Wing. Two attendees describe getting to the site, what the three days were actually like on the ground, and what stayed with them.
- - He Drove a Sandwich Truck Through Woodstock. Van D. Wing on being sent to drive a box truck of sandwiches through half a million people, a delivery that took hours.
- - Henry Diltz, the Festival's Official Photographer. Diltz on his fondest memories of photographing Woodstock from the stage and the field.
- - What the Hog Farm actually did. A look back at the commune led by Hugh Romney that handled crowd care at the 1969 festival in place of conventional security.
